Ed Barker

Ed Barker of Chicago likes building playgrounds.

It’s not his job, but Barker enjoys it so much that as of this past weekend, he has helped to build 60 community playgrounds across the US.

It all started in 2007 when Barker, a senior account manager for Fannie Mae, attended a company sales meeting in New Orleans. He learned that as part of the meeting, Fannie Mae was partnering with a group to help build a children’s playground in a neighborhood devastated by Hurricane Katrina. They wanted volunteers. Barker thought it sounded fun.

“It was a great opportunity to help a community, and when I arrived to work on the playground, I saw how badly that community was hurting,” says Barker. “You can’t believe how humbling it was to think about the comfort of my hotel and see the complete devastation. You work that much harder to get this thing done and do it right. You work harder to motivate people. You work harder to have fun, too.”

Barker loved the experience. From the moment he and the other workers showed up to break ground on the project, community members appeared from everywhere to offer help.

“Some of them joined in on the construction, others brought food, and before long, a jazz band set up and started playing,” says Barker. “It helped me to understand that we sometimes think backwards about community-building. We assume that in a strong community, people build playgrounds. But what I witnessed, and have continued to witness, is that when you build playgrounds, you yourself help bring the community together and strengthen it.”

Barker learned the partnering organization he and other Fannie Mae employees were helping was KaBOOM!, a national nonprofit with the lofty goal of building a playground within walking distance of every child in the US. As of 2013, KaBOOM! has built more than 15,000 playgrounds serving more than 6.6 million children—with the aid of more than one million volunteers. Barker decided to stay in touch with KaBOOM!, and six years and 60 playgrounds later, he still loves the volunteer work.

“It’s a great way to take action to take action to help tomorrow’s adults,” says Barker. “A playground teaches many things, and fosters children’s growth in many ways. There’s the physical activity, exercise, and competition, but there’s also fun, play, and learning social skills.”

What Barker especially enjoys about KaBOOM! is that every playground in unique, and local children have a hand in the design.

“When KaBOOM! meets with a neighborhood about a playground project, the first thing it does is ask children to sit down and draw their own images of an ideal playground,” says Barker. “Later on, when the engineers and planners meet to develop a design, the first things they study are the kids’ drawings.”

Barker has worked on multiple playgrounds in his native Chicago area, and recently recruited his wife, daughter and son to volunteer.

“I’m having too much fun to ever stop doing this,” says Barker. “And I’m committed to keep sending out the message that we need to encourage play. I think we place too much emphasis on muscle in physical education. Innovative play encourages the mind.”

Dina Fried

In the Lakewood, New Jersey community, Dina Fried assists families who have a child battling cancer.

As a volunteer Big Sister for Chai Lifeline, Fried personifies their mission of "fighting illness with love – helping the child, the family and the community." Fried has taken the initiative to fill a need in the community. Noticing that the families of children with cancer in the Lakewood community are often overwhelmed by daily household task and tending to the other children in their families, Fried began her volunteerism by offering to take children battling cancer to the park. What began as a one-time outing, developed into a system of trips, entertainment, crafts projects and eventually, a two-month summer day camp.

Through her service, Fried fills a growing need in the Lakewood community that has not been previously addressed.

Mary Lou Hugus

As a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) volunteer, Mary Lou Hugus works directly with children who have suffered abuse and neglect in Pennsylvania’s Westmoreland County.

In Westmoreland, the number of children placed within the child welfare system has grown each year since 2008 with 396 children in care in 2012. CASA of Westmoreland, a non-profit agency that provides volunteers to act as independent advocates for children who are in the court system due to abuse and neglect, has set the goal to provide advocacy to all of the children in need within the county. It is the only advocacy program of its kind in the community. Since its incorporation in 2006, CASA has increased its services and assisted half of the children in care in Westmoreland in 2012.

Having 40 years of experience as an elementary and middle school teacher, Hugus was a natural fit for CASA of Westmoreland. With her experience as a teacher and a single mother, Hugus has seen the stress presented to and problems facing families and children every day.

When she made the decision to join CASA, she said, “It was a difficult decision to make to retire because I love children.” However, she knew that her new job would be to become a volunteer. Hugus wanted to give back to her community and she has become a great supporter for many programs in Westmoreland. Fortunately, for CASA of Westmoreland, it was of the programs that struck her heart when she retired. She knew that she could continue to make a difference in the lives of children and be a voice for abused and neglected children in Westmoreland.

Since becoming a CASA volunteer in May of 2008, Hugus’s advocacy has had a long-lasting impact on the children she has worked with, and their families. Hugus makes an impact on the community through many important differences she makes every day in the lives of children.

As a CASA volunteer, Hugus meets with the children on her case, collaborates with the caseworker and other professionals involved, works with the child’s parents and foster parents, and reviews school records and other documents. Hugus and the other CASA volunteers research the best interest of the child and the case progress, submit court reports to the court that include recommendations reflecting each child’s needs, speak for the child in the courtroom and at team meetings, and ensure a child’s needs are met while awaiting placement in a safe permanent and nurturing home.

Mary Lou’s work as a CASA volunteer has far-reaching implications for the future; however, Hugus also helps the CASA program in many other ways. Hugus is not only an advocate for the children CASA serves, but also for the CASA program. Whenever there is work to be done for the CASA program, Hugus is the person to go to. She helps with preparing for and organizing fundraisers and events, secures donations for the program, assists with projects in the CASA office, mentors new CASA volunteers, and assists the CASA program with our graduation ceremonies. The CASA staff can call on Hugus for just about anything and know that she will find a way to help.

Hugus’s dedication to Westmoreland extends well beyond the CASA program. Over the years, Hugus has also volunteered with the Cancer Society, the Westmoreland Manor, Habitat for Humanity, the Yough Library, the Palace Theatre, the Westmoreland Cultural Trust, and with Big Brothers Big Sisters as a “lunch buddy.” Throughout all of the relationships and connections Hugus has developed, she displays great interpersonal skills, collaboration, and grace.

Jeanne Cerce

As a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) volunteer, Jeanne Cerce works directly with children who have suffered abuse and neglect in Pennsylvania’s Westmoreland County.

In Westmoreland County, the number of children placed within the child welfare system has grown each year since 2008 with 396 children in care in 2012. CASA of Westmoreland, a non-profit agency that provides volunteers to act as independent advocates for children who are in the court system due to abuse and neglect, has set the goal to provide advocacy to all of the children in need within the county. It is the only advocacy program of its kind in the community. Since its incorporation in 2006, CASA has increased its services and assisted half of the children in care in Westmoreland in 2012.

As a CASA volunteer since May 2008, Cerce serves as a fact-finder for the judge on children’s cases, establishes trust with children, speaks up for children in the courtroom, ensures that each child’s best interest is represented, and collaborates with everyone involved in the children’s cases. These children experience tremendous amounts of loss and there is often staff turnover with individuals involved in the their cases. Cerce stays with the children until they achieve permanency and are no longer in the child welfare system. She makes recommendations on the child’s needs and best interests, and ensures that the children do not slip through the cracks of the system.

Cerce has had a long-lasting impact on the children she has worked with and their families. One family remarked to the CASA staff that they would never have coped with the system and made necessary changes needed to get their kids back without Cerce. She worked with those parents to help them understand the system and make better choices, which showed everyone in the case how much they cared for their children. Through her advocacy service, Cerce was able to see these two children on this particular case happily reunited with their family. This is just one example of the lasting impact and inspiration that Cerce has had on others throughout her service with CASA.

In every case, with every child, with every family, there are numerous examples of how Cerce has made a difference in the lives of others. Cerce’s impact on the community comes through each of the small differences she makes every day in the lives of individuals. However, there is also the cumulative impact of ensuring that the children she serves have safe, loving, nurturing homes to guide them to be successful, productive adults. A CASA volunteer, like Cerce, can often be enough to stop the cycle of violence, not just for one child, but also for generations to come.

Sujaan Lal

Sujaan Lal has created a movement in the youth tennis community that highlights the commitment of a student athlete to community and literacy.

Lal, a senior at Westwood High School in Austin, Texas, founded Racquet Readers to benefit the Central Texas Tennis Association (CTTA) in December of 2011. CTTA provides low cost tennis lessons, tutoring and mentoring to children in south and east Austin, Texas.

As a freshman, Lal began working as a tennis coach and mentor to children who attended CTTA’ s tennis camps. During this time, he soon decided he wanted to help these children in a meaningful way by making reading skills accessible like CTTA does with tennis lessons and life skills.

By December 2012, Lal’s Racquet Readers had collected and given away more than 8,000 books to CTTA children and 17 Austin public schools. Their books have reached McLane Children’s Hospital and head start programs in outlying Austin counties through the Texans in Motion program.

Every day, Lal is recruiting others to join his cause and promote literacy. He has enlisted the help of Westwood High School Varsity Tennis & National Honor Society members as well as UT Austin students to distribute books and mentor children.

Thus far, the Racquet Readers have distributed over 11,200 books and counting to central Texas children in need.

Grand Lake Hospice Volunteers

Grand Lake Hospice is located in a small rural city in Northwest Ohio. Established in 2007, the Grand Lake Hospice volunteer program consists of individuals who serve others and put aside their own problems and concerns to walk patient and family through one of the most difficult times in their lives. Facing death is hard for anyone, but these volunteers know that helping families and patients down the path will help them find understanding, acceptance and comfort.

Grand Lake Hospice volunteers step up to the plate by providing administrative services, planning and executing fundraisers, volunteering for bereavement activities and volunteering to sit with patients and families that are facing one of the most difficult times in their lives. They have helped so many people through their service, which includes making pray cloths, quilts, and handmade cards for families, and organizing a bereavement memorial tree that more than 225 families memorialized loved ones. No matter the job presented, each volunteer willingly gives of his or her time to help.

Hilary Garland

Hilary Garland of Rye, New York is a former marketing executive that brings her expertise to the Open Door Family Medical Centers, Inc. as a devoted volunteer. Open Door is a not-for-profit community health center providing quality primary health care and human services at affordable prices to New York’s Westchester and Putnam counties, particularly low-income, under-served residents and those lacking access to health care.

Open Door operates on a limited budget. Therefore, the organization would find it difficult to compensate a marketing executive what they would make in the corporate world. Nevertheless, Garland provides her marketing expertise to Open Door free of charge, and has been doing so now for the past three years. She assists with building capacity for the program and works on projects in which she can help promote the good work that Open Door is doing in the community.

Additionally, Garland is an essential contributor to the five school-based health centers Open Door operates in Port Chester, New York. She works with the health centers at the school to execute health education events as well as write proposals and presentations to secure potential funding.

This past spring, Garland’s efforts were instrumental in planning and executing Open Door’s first ever Wellness Day at Port Chester High School, an event for high school students with workshops and speakers, including former New York Giants punter Sean Landeta, to emphasize the importance of staying in shape and living a healthy lifestyle. For the event, Garland booked and coordinated 45 workshop leaders to come present three series of workshops to 1,400 high school students. The workshops included physical activities like soccer and boxing, substance abuse workshops, cooking classes and more. The event was such a success that the high school has approved and set the date to have it again next year.

The team at Open Door feels Garland has truly become an indispensable team member. She is reliable, goes out of her way to make herself available to team members, and empowers people within the organization about the good work that they are doing. She bolsters the team’s confidence by providing support and pushing them to get the word out about how wonderful, the program is. Over the years, they have offered Garland a paid position several times, and every time she has declined the offer letting them know she would never take more than $1.00 a day because she truly believes that she can best help the organization by being a volunteer, not an employee.